A Google ship reportedly arrived in French Polynesia on Friday to start survey work on five planned subsea cable projects that will connect various Pacific islands with Chile and Australia.
According to Radio New Zealand, the ship will study the ocean floor and plot the best possible route for the cables, while taking into account environmental factors.
In October 2023, Google Cloud announced its South Pacific Connect initiative, which aims to build two transpacific subsea cables connecting Fiji and French Polynesia to the US and Australia. For that project, the Honomoana cable will connect the US and Australia to French Polynesia, while the Tabua cable will connect the US and Australia to Fiji.
In January this year, Google Cloud followed up with the Central Pacific Connect subsea cable initiative, which comprises the Bulikula cable, which will connect Guam with Fiji, and the Halaihai cable, which will link Guam and French Polynesia.
The same month, Google Cloud officially joined the Humboldt Cable project to connect Chile directly with the Asia-Pacific region, and added French Polynesia as a midway landing point for the cable.
French Polynesia president Moetai Brotherson told RNZ that French Polynesia was chosen for the Google projects because "we have quite a unique location right at the centre of the South Pacific Ocean, so this makes French Polynesia an ideal destination for this type of project."
He also said the five cables will multiply French Polynesia's present bandwidth 50 times, and make it a “highly strategic hub for all of the Pacific”.
RNZ reports that the cable projects were officially endorsed by French Polynesia's Territorial Assembly last week.
The South Pacific Connect initiative is backed by Google, Office of Posts and Telecommunications of French Polynesia (OPT), Fiji International Telecommunications, APTelecom and Vocus Group. OPT is also Google’s partner for the Humboldt landing point in French Polynesia.
The Central Pacific Connect initiative is backed by Google, Amalgamated Telecom Holdings (ATH), APTelecom and Telstra.